Hi Reader,

I noticed something unusual about how we do our own marketing this year. But first, let me back up. One thing that our clients have always loved about us and that we're starting to get known for in other circles is how organized we are. Our project management system is so nailed down that I think I could franchise Aeolidia. We complete projects on time and within budget, and we were even able to switch to a four-day week without impacting the length of projects.

You know that saying, "a place for everything, and everything in its place?" At Aeolidia, we have a way to do everything, and everything is done that way. This goes for our projects for merchants and the structure of our meetings and internal tasks. This goes for finances, sales, hiring, and onboarding. For some reason, though, we're always talking about what new things we could try for marketing.

I say, "for some reason," but I have a feeling that the reason is that I manage marketing, and Sam manages everything else. HA HA! I tend to get restless, and I like learning new things.

For instance, we spent a bunch of time in 2024 doing new research and creating a big list of ideas and possibilities for marketing, including a YouTube channel. Who knows, maybe that channel will change our lives, but I do know that over 1/4 of the projects we worked on in 2024 were for happy repeat clients. Another 1/4 were referred to us by happy clients or impressed colleagues. Instead of throwing spaghetti at the wall next year, I'm focusing on what we're good at: doing fantastic work and developing relationships with people while sharing our knowledge and being helpful.

So, in 2025, I will practice what I preach and only work on marketing projects and tasks from which we reliably see results. One of those things is events (22% of our 2024 projects came from events). Here's where we're already booked to be next year:

In person at Alt Summit and h+h americas
Online with CreativeMornings and Craft Industry Alliance
Two podcasts coming up, and two webinars for business communities
We'll be hosting quarterly webinars for newsletter subscribers
Maybe a trade show or two?
I'm practicing some workshops, so if you're in a small business group of four or more people, let me know if you'd like me to present for your group!

I'd love your help with this. What in-person events do you attend? What podcasts do you listen to? Is there a community I would be a good fit to speak for? I want to meet you where you are next year and be as helpful as possible. I'm also curious about what events are worth it for your business. Let me know!

P.S. We have recently worked on some new or new-ish marketing projects that are starting to pay off (for instance, our new partner newsletter, and improving our SEO). I'm not saying never try anything new. It's a good idea to balance what you're doing so you're mostly doing things that you know work and not trying too many new things at once because you'll end up spreading yourself thin.

Q&A

Here's a reader question about copyright infringement, as answered by Helen Hulskamp, Ecommerce Strategist on our team:

Q: I found a site that is using my photos and exact text from my site. What can I do?

A: I’m so sorry this is happening to you! We saw an increase in this type of nefarious activity in the last week, but it is something that can happen at any time. All merchants should be monitoring for copycat sites. You’ll need to find out where the site is hosted and then issue a takedown notice to that host. Most web hosts have a form on their site for reporting abuse. If the offending site is also using your domain name, you will need to contact your registrar, as this indicates a security problem with your DNS records. If they are using their own domain name but it potentially infringes on your trademark, you should contact the registrar for that domain. Luckily there are online tools that can track down the web host of copycat sites and tools that help you scan for sites that are using your content. We have an in-depth blog post about this topic here.

Question: Answered

Our team includes experts in branding, design, development, email & SMS/text marketing, search engine optimization, copywriting, conversion optimization, ecommerce strategy, business growth, and more. Have a question for us? Email back, and I'll consult one of our experts and share one weekly response over email.

Interesting Clickables

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With social commerce on the rise, brands need more than just eye-catching images on their social media platforms. Here's a roundup of the 12 best UGC Platforms.
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